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Some people believe South by Southwest is no longer worth attending, but Mat Honan thinks otherwise. "Southby is no longer the elite event it once was. But neither is the Internet itself," he writes. The conference has become a launching point for social startups, he writes.

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Visa is seeking innovative marketing ideas through a startup competition at this month's SXSW conference called the "Everywhere Initiative." Visa is looking to solve three challenges with the competition: reaching millennials, attracting wealthy customers and pushing its Visa Checkout online-payment platform. "We're in such a transformative time that businesses and marketing organizations can't just depend on themselves or their agencies to solve their business problems," said Visa's Shiv Singh.

This year's South by Southwest didn't produce a game-changing application like it has in years past, but despite the rain, the conference was full of optimism, Chris Taylor writes. "Sure, past years have provided plenty of food for thought, but I don't think the optimism -- the sense that we really can make this world a better place through tech and social media -- has ever been this tangible," he writes.

One interesting takeaway from South by Southwest came from Amber Case, co-founder of Geoloqi who believes technology should allow people's lives simpler and more fulfilling. Other key points from the conference include Foursquare's continuing quest to refine its revenue model.

The teams behind Highlight and Glancee, two location-based applications, are trying to make sure users get just the right number of notifications, after suffering a hard test at South By Southwest this week. These background apps alert users when they are near others who they might find interesting, either because they have interests or friends in common and they went crazy on many users in the huge SXSW crowds.

Twitter and Foursquare were each breakout hits at past years' South by Southwest conferences, but the tech fest is no longer an essential launchpad for social sites and applications, Jim Louderback writes. Pinterest and other tools gained momentum after being championed by mainstream tech journalists, and didn't need SXSW's early adopters to drum up buzz, he writes.